Are we getting a server merge soon?

[Dekusuta]

What makes Kupipi good in that combo?

I don't have Apururu UC so I go with Yoran as my go to healer + Sel'theus for sustainability ; I'm still trying to find a 3rd. I usually fill that slot with a support like Koru or Arcelia II.

[Hyrist]

What makes Kupipi good in that combo?

Kupipi prioritizes debuff removal. In situations where Paralyze is highly frequent, as well as the Tank being cursed and petrified, having those debuffs removed asap can make sure critical skills and healing can go of when needed. She'll cast Stona and have its animation complete before the Dragon's skill that applies it at times.

That said, she's the first to be removed if I have someone who can manually remove debuffs.

[Keido]

Excuse me, good sir, but my pop culture association twitched. The manner of which you are speaking invoked an image of a character in my mind.



(all in good humor, I hope you get the reference)

I am staunchly against redesigning any content intended to be soloed, or limiting or removing the Trust system in any way from its current form. Being able to play solo through as much content as I can is the reason they got me to A. Purchase SoA. B. Pay for a server transfer. C. Fork over a monthly subscription. They limit or change that now, they lose me.

As far as people who seem to have an antiquated idea of what an MMO should be, I can't blame you, as this is a thirteen year old game, for having such a perspective. But please bear in mind this is 2016, not 2006. MMOs are commonplace now, the base is diversified, and worse, heavily conflicted and segmented. Back where people were begging for any sort of company in terms of video games, and the fact that the rest of the world did not really catch up to the early adapters of the internet as a part of daily life, it was acceptable to think of a concept of a game that forced you to be social in an era where gamers had problems in that department.

Now, it's much different. People are online every day from social media to cloud based documentation, or even streaming/video based income - and sitting at the computer doesn't mean these days that you have nothing else to do but play an MMO. So waiting around for four hours and/or spending days preparing a class you don't enjoy just to get into a piece of content that drops gear for the job you originally wanted to play anyways doesn't fly as acceptable hobby habits. Especially when this MMO is already quite aged and there are multiple competitors who don't charge a regular subscription.

Given the context of this day and age of online gaming, I'd say your viewpoint would do more to hasten the end of this game's services, then catering to the soloists.

That's not to say every player does or should treat this as a single player game, though it does have a lot of success in the elements that imply that. Rather I submit that MMOs are slowly adapting a new definition. In which grouping isn't a requirement for advancement, so much as it is to tackle heavier challenges for faster progression. That's why this piece of content appeals to me. Not just as a soloist but as a player in general.

It's also why I'm still on the fence with Server merges, while pieces of popular content become overcrowded due to lack of foresight for the influx of soloists out there.

I agree that the more people party, the better it is for everyone. Sadly my play-style does not fit with the average pickup group and that's not a common option for me (even though the door is open for whomever will jut take me up for how I'll play). There should still be the option for outliers like me to have fun and enjoy the game while still pushing progression, and I'm glad they've accommodated.

As far as what it's doing to the community? Forced bonds often are severed when they are no longer absolutely necessary. Bonds made willingly, often last regardless of condition. Insted of making groups out of need, I'd recommend you do it out of desire. They tend to be better groups all around anyways.

No I really don't get your reference nor do I care. What I do care about is the community or what little of it is left anyway. I have a linkshell its a very good linkshell we party we gather we do events. There are people who actively refuse to group for whatever reason and I ask why play. Just go play ff7 if you want to play by yourself. It makes no sense and I don't think its completely unfair to require parties of 6 to do content. Its not hard to find people to do things if you look. You all keep making excuses that avoid whats the real crux of the issue you just want to play a solo game. That is completely fine. I have no issue with how people have their fun as long as it doesn't impact me and I assume you feel the same as long as I don't impact you.

I can only say what its like on Phoenix so your experience might be different. Most of the time we have 5 solo entrants and a duo. While those people are in there are 30 people waiting to get in. Is that poor design you bet it is. If say you were required to have 6 people enter and really you can do this content with any party make up of any competent players 1 person is left out not 30 spamming a book for 45 min to fight something that takes 2 min to kill. Its absolutely crazy. It isn't difficult to group up its purely that you don't want to.

So we can agree to disagree about the best way to solve where we are but allowing everything to be used by solo players goes farther to drive a death nail into the game than anything else. I am not advocating blocking people from content because that is not something I believe in but I am advocating that people stop being so selfish and find people to do things with the overall experience is better for everyone.

[Stompa]

So we can agree to disagree about the best way to solve where we are but allowing everything to be used by solo players goes farther to drive a death nail into the game than anything else. I am not advocating blocking people from content because that is not something I believe in but I am advocating that people stop being so selfish and find people to do things with the overall experience is better for everyone.

I think this is a problem that has increased since the ilvl changes to the game, and the plethora of augmented 119 gear which can vary in power quite a lot. On level 75, people would take you in groups if you had gear that was 70-75 and you had capped combat/magic skills and at least 50% of your merits. Also, in those days, people understood that they could have a "favourite job" but that if they wanted to get any nice gear, they needed a utility job, WHM or RDM or something that would be allowed into parties. And to have a decent basic gear / skill set for that utility job, and be proficient at playing it.

In those days I feel it was easier to just /poke somebody and ask to join on my WHM or something. Today, the sheer power of high-end weapons, Jobmaster powers, etc. have made people a bit nervous about asking to join. The increase in levels 75-->119 and the huge increase in gear power, has made some casual players a bit ashamed and nervous of their basic functional utility jobs, and reluctant to try and team up.

I think it is a great shame, when people don't ask to join, or are not allowed to join. Partying in FFXI often leads to more fun, more laughter, strong friendships, sometimes friendships that last a lifetime.

[Pixela]

I think Square made this event how they did on purpose to shut people up about constantly complaining they want merges.

[Keido]

I think this is a problem that has increased since the ilvl changes to the game, and the plethora of augmented 119 gear which can vary in power quite a lot. On level 75, people would take you in groups if you had gear that was 70-75 and you had capped combat/magic skills and at least 50% of your merits. Also, in those days, people understood that they could have a "favourite job" but that if they wanted to get any nice gear, they needed a utility job, WHM or RDM or something that would be allowed into parties. And to have a decent basic gear / skill set for that utility job, and be proficient at playing it.

In those days I feel it was easier to just /poke somebody and ask to join on my WHM or something. Today, the sheer power of high-end weapons, Jobmaster powers, etc. have made people a bit nervous about asking to join. The increase in levels 75-->119 and the huge increase in gear power, has made some casual players a bit ashamed and nervous of their basic functional utility jobs, and reluctant to try and team up.

I think it is a great shame, when people don't ask to join, or are not allowed to join. Partying in FFXI often leads to more fun, more laughter, strong friendships, sometimes friendships that last a lifetime.

This is 100% right. People are not excluded as they once were because the talent pool is much smaller these days. There are still the occasional A-holes that ruin people and then they believe the only way to play is solo. Which means they are missing out on a TON of things. It just requires a little effort to approach people and ask for help. I will say that when you do approach players with stars above their names know what you want and how to get it and specifically what help you need. It really goes a long way.

[Olor]

I think this is a problem that has increased since the ilvl changes to the game, and the plethora of augmented 119 gear which can vary in power quite a lot. On level 75, people would take you in groups if you had gear that was 70-75 and you had capped combat/magic skills and at least 50% of your merits. Also, in those days, people understood that they could have a "favourite job" but that if they wanted to get any nice gear, they needed a utility job, WHM or RDM or something that would be allowed into parties. And to have a decent basic gear / skill set for that utility job, and be proficient at playing it.

In those days I feel it was easier to just /poke somebody and ask to join on my WHM or something. Today, the sheer power of high-end weapons, Jobmaster powers, etc. have made people a bit nervous about asking to join. The increase in levels 75-->119 and the huge increase in gear power, has made some casual players a bit ashamed and nervous of their basic functional utility jobs, and reluctant to try and team up.

I think it is a great shame, when people don't ask to join, or are not allowed to join. Partying in FFXI often leads to more fun, more laughter, strong friendships, sometimes friendships that last a lifetime.

You've got it right here. There has never been such a HUGE disparity in base power between players at endgame before. The sad fact is, despite spending millions on augments and doing my utmost to find every bit of ACC gear I can reasonably find, I can't even TOUCH a lot of content. I am not going to lie to get into groups or pretend I am a better player than I am.

As for support, I have a bard but it is in 109 empy gear. I don't really prioritize gearing it anymore because it doesn't net me invites anymore. I used to play support all the time to gear my other jobs but now there is a huge abyss between scrubs like me and players doing higher tier content. And since bard doesn't help me get gear anymore, I've been focussing on my solo jobs because they are how I get gear. Maybe my bard would be fine, I don't know, folks don't seem to be looking for bards anymore, and I don't feel like leveling GEO now that it's the flavour of the month.

[detlef]

Word to the wise: GEO isn't flavor of the month. It's flavor of the rest of the game's life.

[Olor]

Word to the wise: GEO isn't flavor of the month. It's flavor of the rest of the game's life.

Touche. Well regardless, while I may be (and probably will be) into leveling it up later and gearing it, that's not really a very good solution to my right now problems. And I wouldn't really be able to gear it anyway :/

Besides, with my luck as soon as I had it leveled and not completely awful SE would nerf it.

[Hyrist]

What I do care about is the community or what little of it is left anyway.

No you don't. You only care about what you perceive as the community. It has to stay the way you want it or it's bad.

What I see? Are the loads of people coming back to the game because they can finish their bucket list solo, who are excited about new content without dealing with old problems like the high-level,high-gear elitism that still mires a lot of groups. They're jumping into linkshells with open recruitment and talking, socializing, asking for help, be it information and presence, and getting it DONE because they don't need a full party, but they do need/want a bit of company.

The community isn't falling apart. It's growing, taking new shape. Threads on Reddit are still being speckled with people who are new or returning and asking for advice. And I for one did not join simply to be antisocial. But I'm not going to wait around for an hour to find that one rare party that is ok with my playstyle, when I can get three normals done bringing along one to two people of my own, or even going solo, it just a hair bit more time.

So, yes, I staunchly disagree. Solo players are doing more to keep this game on life support than the die-hard linkshells that won't accept them, and there are plenty of players in-between. Creating content that appeals on all levels of it, does more to maintain the health of the game than appealing to one or the other. That's what Ambuscade does in its ideal. They just needed to cut down the congestion issue.